Jonathan Hernandez has been a more than capable reliever for the Texas Rangers. He has come in and gotten the job done on many occasions. I would consider him one of the better Rangers relievers over the past few seasons. Hernandez has a career ERA of .340 (2.90 in 2020) with 50 strikeouts to only 21 walks. Fans knew what they were getting when Hernandez entered the game.
Why take Jonathan Hernandez the dominate reliever and try to turn him into Jonathan Hernandez the starter? Ever since the success of CJ Wilson the Rangers have a history of just that. Wilson, Alexi Ogando, Neftali Feliz, Scott Feldman, Robbie Ross. All players the Rangers tried to change their role. Other than Wilson, I wouldn’t call any of the others a real success. I personally don’t understand taking a guy who has 47 innings pitched total in the majors and asking him to throw 150+ innings this season. The track record suggests it doesn’t work.
Admittedly, I am not a general manger or talent scout, just a writer who likes to voice my opinions. I’ve been severely wrong in some of my predictions (in early 2011 I said hiring Adrian Beltre was a mistake and we all know how that turned out). I’ve been right in some of my thoughts (I said Ryan Dempster was a huge mistake). The idea of taking someone who is dominate in one role and moving him to a very different role is not often a good idea in my humble opinion.
If the team is dead set on taking a reliever like Jonathan Hernandez and making him a starter, I would like to think they know what they are doing. Chris Young is a former MLB pitcher and should be good at evaluating that sort of thing. However the track record speaks for itself. With less than three weeks to go before spring training is set to begin, the Rangers may just be floating this out there to see what fan reaction is. They may also be serious about it. We will know which it is soon enough.
